Population of Jakarta expected to swell to 16 million by 2020

Jakartans heading home for Idul Fitri

Think Jakarta’s is overpopulated already? Think the traffic is bad now? We may not have seen anything yet.

Based on current data and population growth trends, Jakarta’s population is expected increase to 16 million by 2020, which would be about double the number of people living in the capital since 2000. 

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that Jakarta had about 8 million residents in 2000. And in the 15 years since, that number has increased at rate faster that almost all of its neighbors.

“Jakarta is one of the region’s megacities, with more than 10 million inhabitants in 2010. Population growth in Jakarta between 2000 and 2010 was higher than other cities in East Asia except for China,” said Senior World Bank economist Taimur Samad today, as quoted by Okezone. 

Samad said that, from 2000 until 2010, the city population increased by about 7 million people. 

With a population growth rate of 3.7 percent per year, Samad said the population of the city is set to reach 16 million people in 2020.

Keep in mind that only includes the people living within Jakarta proper. It does not include residents of satellite cities such as Bogor and Bekasi, many of whom commute into Jakarta for work. World Population Review say Jabodetabek, the official name for the Greater Jakarta Area currently has a population well over 28 million.

In addition to Jakarta, Indonesia has two cities with a population of between five and 10 million inhabitants – Bandung and Surabaya. Indonesia also has 18 cities with population in the range of one to five million inhabitants, 27 cities with 500 thousand to one million inhabitants, and 29 cities with 100 thousand to 500 thousand inhabitants.

Our only hope for salvation for the massive overpopulation of Jakarta is if the Indonesian government finally gets around to releasing that male birth control pill they’ve been promising us…